"We decided to make something different from today's art world, something like the Italian Renaissance. Then, art was a song of beauty about the human body, the human soul, human creativity and human ability. It was the resurrection of a spirit that had been forgotten."

The focal point is the building’s cavernous great hall. Fresco-like paintings of Russian mythological and religious icons line the walls and ceiling. The saturated oil colors used to create the tiger and bull totems, birds, druids, and mermaids achieve a stained-glass effect.

It is the style of Modern Renaissance that adopts the eclecticism of the artists' lives and creatively transforms it into its ideal counterpart, where mythological creatures peacefully converse with flowers, and fairy-tale landscapes harmonically incorporate complicated geometrical ornaments.

It may be the key to many secrets of existence.

“This country is all about immigrants,” Nicholas Shaplyko says. “The cliche of the ‘American Dream’-- to create something from nothing-- this is a dream. Here is a place where the dream can come true.”